We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among those rights are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Permit me to begin this by stating plainly, and for about the
millionth time in the past forty-seven years, that I am an unabashed
individualist.

The best philosophical expression of my individualism is called
libertarianism. The best ethical expression of my individualism is
called the Zero Aggression Principle. And the best working political
expression of my individualism, thus far, is the first ten amendments
to the United States Constitution, commonly known as the Bill of
Rights.

It should be clear from the above (and from thirty-odd years of
writing and public speaking) that I am not a liberal of any kind, nor
a progressive, nor a Democrat, nor a leftist, nor a socialist, nor
whatever the hell else that kind of people want to be called these
days.

Regrettably, it isn't equally clear, at least to some, that I am
no conservative. I have business associates, publishers and editors,
for the most part, who've known me and worked with me for twenty years
who don't understand that, and still think I'm some sort of right-
winger.

I think this happens because Republicans are better liars in some
ways than Democrats, but at the same time, they're less competent at
getting elected to office. Republicans talk a lot about individual
liberty whenever they're out of power. They're little different from
Democrats in this respect. But because they're out of power so much of
the time, we hear it more continuously from them than from the other
side.

Once they seize the reins of state, however, all of that freedom
talk stopsexcept as Orwellian cover for unAmerican travesties like
the Patriot Act, the no-fly list, and the twisted logic they employ to
explain away illegal abduction, false imprisonment, and torture. When
Republicans have power, the Bill of Rights becomes "just a piece of
paper".

In this, too, they're no different from the Democrats.

I was listening to one of the conservative radio Holy Trinity this
afternoon, explaining to a poor, dumb listener who had become confused
by attempting to think for himself, why those individuals accused by
the United States government of various acts of terrorismmany of
whom have been held illegally against their will for years on the
merest presumption of their guiltdo not deserve a proper trial,
but should get some kind of drumhead ritual instead, before they're
locked away in some dark hole forever or simply put before a firing
squad.

What this clown's argument came down to, in the end, was that the
prisoners in question are not Americans, and therefore don't deserve
to exercise "American" rights. (This is the same illogic by which the
government can do anything as long as it does it outside American
borders.)

This is not the view of things on which America was founded. Take
a look at the quotation from the Declaration of Independence at the
beginning of this article. It was Thomas Jefferson's view, unanimously
ratified by the remainder of the Founding Fathers, that every human
being has exactly the same rights, simply by virtue of being a human
being.
Moreover, these rights are not uniquely American in character but
are possessed equally by everyone, everywhere. America was to have
been exceptional, not because its people had these rights, but because
its governmentalone in the world in their timeshad been
deliberately constructed from the ground up to uphold and defend them.
Nor was government given any legal authority to suspend or abrogate
them.

No one has to earn his rights. No matter how many puffed up
monarchs and tin-pot dictators suppressed them, no matter how many
centuries they have been suppressed, no matter how many millennia,
they represent his natural state of being, his by virtue of his
existence.

None of this is about what you and I are allowed to do, it's about
what the government is not allowed to do. Properlyas Barack
Obama recently lamentedall rights are negative, in that they
derive from a single basic right, as Robert LeFevre put it, not to be
molested.

To be left the hell alone.

Any "rights" that impose any kind of obligation on anybody else to
do anything at all except leave you alone, are not properly rights,
but government-granted privileges and entitlementsa license to
make slaves of whoever provides the goodiesexactly the kind of
corrupt, abusive practice that most Americans fought the Revolution to
abolish.

But once again, I have digressed.

Please don't tell me that our nation is at war, which miraculously
allows the rule of law to be set aside. It is not at war. This country
hasn't fought a constitutional, legally-declared war since 1945. Those
conservatives who attempt to push the destructive notion that somehow
such a detail doesn't matter, are acting as lawlessly as the Obama or
Clinton Administrations ever did. America wasn't attacked on September
11, 2001 by another nation-state, but by a self-consciously stateless
band of violent criminals. It has used the excuse to invade and wreck
two innocent countries for reasons completely different from those
given.

The American legal system comes to us originally from England,
where it evolved, over a thousand years, to protect the rights of the
individual. These days, it doesn't seem to work very well, either here
or in England, chiefly because it has devolved, degraded by the alien
philosophy called socialism, and now seeks, above all else, to protect
the power of the government at the expense of the individual, in just
the same way any military tribunal's first purpose is to serve the
military.

Socialism is an assertion that the individual is of little or no
moral importance, and that the needs or wants of the collective, no
matter what that might be, always trump whatever a "mere" individual
may desire, even when it comes down to his own life, liberty, or
property.

Both conservatives and liberals are dedicated to one form of
socialism or anotherright wing socialism or left wing socialismand
both are more than willing to lie, cheat, steal, and murder in
order to advance their collectivist agendas. Only the excuses differ,
the pablum mouthed by the left most frequently being "social justice"
and the pablum of the right being "national security", for the sake of
which either of them will cheerfully kill you and cook you and eat
you.

That people can no sooner expect to achieve profound and lasting
individual liberty under conservative rule than under "progressives"
should be excruciatingly obvious in this Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama
epoch.

However badly it may work at present, however desperately it needs
to be radically reformed, the American justice system represents
inalienable rights possessed, not just by American citizens, but by
every human being. If politicians have the power to deny due process
to alien prisoners today, it will find an excuseperhaps by
declaring us "unlawful enemy combatants"to deny it to you and me
tomorrow.

It's already happened in a couple of cases.

If, on the other hand, we take that power away, in the Renaissance
that follows, people in other countries will see America as a beacon
of liberty once again, not as the brutal oppressor it has become. Our
freedom will spread, by itself, to every corner of the Earth. Unlike
democracy, which is in so many ways the opposite of freedom, it will
be embraced by billions, and will not have to be imposed at bayonet
point.

Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has
been called one of the world's foremost authorities on the ethics
of self-defense. He is the author of more than 25 books, including
The American Zone, Forge of the Elders, Pallas, The Probability
Broach, Hope (with Aaron Zelman), and his collected articles
and speeches, Lever Action, all of which may be purchased
through his website "The Webley Page" at
lneilsmith.org.

Neil is presently at work on Ares, the middle volume
of the epic Ngu Family Cycle, and on Where We Stand:
Libertarian Policy in a Time of Crisis with his daughter, Rylla.

See stunning full-color graphic-novelizations of The
Probability Broach and Roswell, Texas which feature the
art of Scott Bieser at www.BigHeadPress.com
Dead-tree versions may be had through the publisher, or at
www.Amazon.com where you will also find Phoenix Pick editions
of some of Neil's earlier novels. Links to Neil's books at
Amazon.com are on his website